Few Indians who challenged life's challenges and triumphed destiny

“The greatest power we hold is not in what we have, but in who we truly are when we choose to ignite, engage and unleash the hero within.”

This quote by Irene Becker, the first woman CEO of a steel company in Canada, goes to prove that however different we might be from each other as humans all of us share a beautiful and undeterred spirit, which refuses to give up and bow to life’s challenges and adversities. Many such heroes among us have shown this spirit and flourished despite hurdles. Here are a few such inspirational stories of people who turned the social strata cycle upside down in spite of struggles that are enough to waiver dreams and determination.

P C Mustafa

Image courtesy: Youtube.com

Hailing from a daily wage-earning family in a remote village in Kerala, the son of a coolie (train stop porter) who failed his 6th grade, PC Mustafa stands out as a singular example of how even humble beginnings can turn glorious. His eagerness to study further despite his family’s financial crisis led him to graduate engineering and become the CEO of a national fresh food brand (iD) worth a 100 crores (1 billion) selling Idli and Dosa batter (popular south Indian food dishes). What once started with a mere investment of 25,000 rupees is now a billion rupees worth venture.

Jyothi Reddy

Image Courtesy: Jyothireddy.com

From an agricultural laborer to the CEO of a software company in the USA, Anil Jyothi Reddy has accomplished greatness in her life and her vision will come to inspire many other women across the globe. The youngest among five girl children in a poverty-stricken family, Reddy lived a fair share of her life in a welfare orphanage and married off at 16, she later worked for a scrimpy five rupees in the fields, to feed her children when she herself was a growing adult and had dreams of her own. Today she owns a software company in U.S.A., Key Software Solutions in U.S. that helps with Visa Processing paperwork. Her American dreams have come true, but she is still aspiring to help the needy back home.

Arunachalam Muruganantham

Image Courtesy: newinventions.in

A social entrepreneur and popularly known as the ‘Tampon King’, Muruganantham hails from a family of hand-loom weavers who lost his father at a very young age, leading him to a life of poverty. It was much later when he saw his wife using unhygienic objects as sanitary pads during her menstrual cycle that Muruganantham decided to design experimental pads. It took him few years, much ridicule and even ostracization from his family and community to devise a low-cost machine that would grind, de-fibrate and sterilize the pads. His innovative idea encouraged him to start his own venture, ‘Jayaashree Industries,’ and provide these cost-effective machines to women self-help groups in rural areas.

Mustafa, Reddy and Muruganantham have reached great heights with their persuasion and strength despite life’s biggest obstacles. Life’s struggles never come to an end, not even when you have achieved success. If there are high peak mountains, one will find downhill terrains too. Pursuing your dreams and securing your family’s future needs a little more than determination, whether you are on the mountain or the terrain – it needs you to elevate yourself and understand the importance of insuring life. Birla Sun Life Insurance helps you understand this better with its #KhudKoKarBulandcampaign that salutes the undefeatable human spirit.

Watch how a father empowers his son’s future and triumphs destiny with his indomitable spirit. His setback and ill-health could not stop him from giving colors to his son’s dreams. There might be a thing or two that the rest of us can learn from this heartwarming story of this man who refused to surrender to his tragic circumstances and secured his and his family’s aspirations, enough to not having to ask for anyone’s help or alter the plans he made for himself and his family.